Opening Salvos

I wonder what odds you could have got on Virender Sehwag hitting the first ball of the World Cup for four. After all of the build-up and amid the feverish anticipation of the home crowd there was something almost anti-climactic about his disdainful dismissal of the first ball that was bowled to him. Anti-climactic, that is, unless you’re Indian.

From there Sehwag went on his merry way. It was, in many ways, a typical Sehwag innings, full of strokes that defied explanation executed with the barest shuffle of the feet, unless he was opening up the off side and driving murderously through, or over, cover. Had his movements not been hampered late on it is not impossible that we might have seen a double century on the opening night of the tournament. There was only one true blemish: as it turned out the run out of Sachin Tendulkar was only an issue for the little master’s legion of fans, but on another day Sehwag’s indolent backing up and refusal to respond to the call may have been more expensive. It may seem churlish to point it out, but sterner challenges lie ahead of India if they are to become the first team to lift the trophy on home soil and they need to get all aspects of their game spot on.

That aside, though, it was a pretty satisfactory opening for the Indians. Bangladesh showed character and scrapped hard but were never really in the game once Sehwag and the underrated Virat Kohli had done their stuff. It wasn’t the most exciting opening imaginable to a World Cup but neither was it a stereotypically dull fifty over match and it bodes well for the rest of the tournament.

The games on Sunday were less of an advertisement for the World Cup in its current format. Kenya were shock semi-finalists in 2003 but those days seem long past now. Steve Tikolo, once widely acknowledged as the best non-test batsman in the world, looks a shadow of his former self and others such as Collins Obuya seem also to have declined. It’s a shame, but New Zealand made short work of them with a comprehensive ten wicket win. It is difficult to gauge where New Zealand stand after this, but it should certainly have done their confidence the world of good.

Later on Sunday, Canada offered a little more resistance to widely fancied Sri Lanka but, after a sluggish start, Sangakkara and Jayawardene showed their class and Canada, who had given England a scare in warm-up game, were never in the game in spite of flamboyant innings from Rizwan Cheema. As with the other major nations so far, Sri Lanka will face much tougher challenges than this but will be grateful for the work out.

Australia haven’t lost a match at the World Cup since 1999, and even then it didn’t stop them from winning the trophy, and it was never really likely that this would come to an end against a decent Zimbabwean side. Other sides may have noted the Australian top order’s reluctance to use their feet to the spinners, which resulted in a decidedly de-powered first powerplay, but Michael Clarke and Shane Watson played nicely (although Watson was noticeably more comfortable against the quicker bowlers) and the pace attack were too much for the Zimbabwean batting line-up. Whether they will be a challenge to the better sides in these conditions remains to be seen.

So it’s been interesting rather than explosive thus far, although England are doing their best to bring the tournament to life against the Netherlands as I write. With only one game a day there is a slight lack of momentum at the moment, but things are starting to build up and Thursday will bring the next clash of test playing sides when South Africa take on the West Indies. Bring it on.